France will provide Ukraine with SCALP long-range cruise missiles to help Kyiv's forces strike targets deep behind Russian lines, President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday.

Arriving at a NATO summit focused on Kyiv's battle against Moscow's invasion, Macron said Paris would send the SCALP missile, already supplied by London under the name "Storm Shadow".

Macron said the new missile delivery was designed to allow Ukraine to strike at Russian occupation forces "in depth" during its counteroffensive to liberate its territory.

The SCALP/Storm Shadow is an Anglo-French weapon with a range of 250 kilometres (155 miles) -- the longest of any Western weapon supplied to Ukraine so far -- and Britain announced in May that it would supply a batch of the advanced weapons.

Russia reacted with fury, warning that London risked being dragged directly into the conflict, and even some Western allies were concerned that Kyiv might conduct strikes into Russia itself.

Macron implied, however, that Ukraine had given an undertaking not to use SCALP against such targets, saying that they had been given "in coherence with our doctrine, that is to say to permit Ukraine to defend its own territory."

Macron did not say how many of the missiles would be sent, but France is understood to have an arsenal of less than 400, according to specialist defence review DSI.

Kremlin vows response

The Kremlin said Tuesday it would respond to a decision by France to supply Kyiv with long-range missiles that could help Ukraine strike targets deep behind Russian lines.

"From our point of view, this decision is a mistake with consequences for the Ukrainian side, because this will of course force us to take countermeasures," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Germany pledges new arms aid to Ukraine

Germany, Ukraine's second biggest supplier of arms to resist the Russian invasion, pledged another 700 million euros ($771 million) in military assistance to Kyiv on Tuesday at a pivotal NATO summit.

Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said at the gathering in Vilnius that the new package "served Ukraine's priorities: air defence, tanks, artillery".

Germany in May had already announced a new weapons package worth 2.7 billion euros for Ukraine, ahead of a visit by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The new aid valued at nearly 700 million euros includes two Patriot missile system launchers, another 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles and 25 Leopard 1 tanks as well as 20,000 artillery rounds and 5,000 rounds of smoke ammunition.

The defence ministry said in a statement it would also send an "extensive package" for reconnaissance and drone defence, a Luna drone system and two military transport aircraft.

The equipment comes from existing supplies of the Bundeswehr armed forces as well as output from partner manufacturers.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, Germany has dropped a traditionally pacifist stance and sent a vast array of weaponry to Kyiv, from air defence to artillery systems. It is now Ukraine's second largest arms supplier after the United States.

Berlin earlier this year started sending advanced Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine, after months of pleas from Kyiv for the heavy weapons to bolster its fightback against Russia.

Ukrainian and German politicians have been calling for rapid resupply of tanks given destruction of the armaments by Russian forces.

The two-day summit is set to be dominated by the alliance's response to Russia's war on Ukraine and Kyiv's push for NATO membership.

A senior government official on Monday had said that Germany would make a "very substantial" new pledge of military equipment for Ukraine at the meeting.